BigCommerce has emerged as a leading platform for businesses of all sizes looking to build and scale their online stores. Its robust feature set, scalable architecture, and extensive app ecosystem make it a compelling choice. But navigating the platform and maximizing its potential requires understanding the available tools. This post delves into the essential BigCommerce tools, offering a comprehensive guide to help you optimize your online store and drive sales.
BigCommerce Native Features: Powering Your Store
BigCommerce shines with its powerful built-in features, eliminating the immediate need for many third-party apps. Understanding and leveraging these features is crucial for maximizing your store’s capabilities.
Product Management: Catalogs, Options, and Inventory
BigCommerce offers a robust product management system. This is where you define and organize everything you sell.
- Unlimited Product Options: Offer variations in size, color, material, etc., without needing separate product listings. This improves the customer experience and simplifies catalog management.
Example: Selling a t-shirt with options for size (S, M, L, XL) and color (Red, Blue, Green).
- Inventory Tracking: Automatically manage stock levels to prevent overselling. Set low-stock alerts to reorder promptly.
Example: Receive an email notification when the number of available “Red T-shirts – Size Medium” dips below 10.
- Category Management: Organize products into logical categories and subcategories for easy navigation. Implement faceted search to allow customers to filter by attributes.
Example: A clothing store might have categories like “Men,” “Women,” “Accessories,” with subcategories within each.
Marketing Tools: Driving Traffic and Conversions
BigCommerce provides a variety of marketing tools to attract customers and boost sales.
- SEO Optimization: Built-in SEO features like customizable URLs, meta descriptions, and image alt text help your products rank higher in search engine results.
Actionable Tip: Conduct keyword research to identify relevant terms for your products and incorporate them naturally into your product descriptions and meta data.
- Email Marketing Integrations: Seamlessly integrate with popular email marketing platforms like Mailchimp and Klaviyo to nurture leads and send targeted campaigns.
Example: Automatically add new customers to your email list and send a welcome email with a discount code.
- Coupon Codes and Promotions: Create various promotional offers like percentage discounts, fixed amount discounts, and free shipping to incentivize purchases.
Example: Offer a 15% discount for first-time customers or a “Buy One Get One Free” promotion on select items.
- Abandoned Cart Recovery: Automatically send emails to customers who left items in their cart, reminding them to complete their purchase. Studies show that abandoned cart emails can recover 10-15% of lost sales.
Payment Gateways and Shipping: Seamless Transactions
A smooth checkout process is essential for maximizing conversions. BigCommerce offers integrations with numerous payment gateways and shipping providers.
- Payment Gateway Options: Integrate with popular payment gateways like PayPal, Stripe, Authorize.net, and many others to offer customers various payment methods. BigCommerce doesn’t charge transaction fees on any plan.
- Shipping Integrations: Connect with carriers like USPS, UPS, FedEx, and more to calculate real-time shipping rates and offer customers accurate delivery estimates.
* Example: Integrate with Shippo or ShipStation for advanced shipping management and label printing.
- Secure Checkout: BigCommerce provides a secure checkout experience with PCI DSS Level 1 compliance, ensuring customer payment information is protected.
BigCommerce App Marketplace: Extending Functionality
The BigCommerce App Marketplace offers a wealth of third-party apps to extend the platform’s functionality. Choosing the right apps can significantly enhance your store’s capabilities.
Marketing and Advertising Apps
These apps help you reach new customers, drive traffic, and increase sales.
- Klaviyo: Powerful email marketing and automation platform for personalized customer journeys.
- Yotpo: Collect and display customer reviews and user-generated content to build trust and social proof.
- AdRoll: Retargeting platform to re-engage website visitors with targeted ads.
- Justuno: Conversion optimization suite with pop-ups, banners, and personalized messaging.
Sales and Customer Service Apps
These apps improve the customer experience, streamline sales processes, and enhance customer support.
- Recharge: Subscription management platform for recurring revenue.
- Bold Subscriptions: Another popular option for managing subscriptions and recurring orders.
- LiveChat: Provide real-time customer support through live chat.
- Help Scout: Help desk software for managing customer inquiries and providing efficient support.
Shipping and Fulfillment Apps
These apps streamline shipping processes, optimize fulfillment, and reduce shipping costs.
- Shippo: Shipping platform for comparing rates, printing labels, and managing shipments.
- ShipStation: Another robust shipping platform with advanced automation features.
- Easyship: Global shipping platform for cross-border fulfillment.
BigCommerce Analytics: Measuring Performance
BigCommerce offers built-in analytics tools to track key metrics and measure your store’s performance.
Real-Time Dashboard
- Provides a snapshot of your store’s performance, including sales, traffic, and conversion rates. Monitor trends and identify areas for improvement.
Detailed Reports
- Access detailed reports on various aspects of your store, including product performance, sales trends, customer behavior, and marketing campaign effectiveness.
- Example: Analyze which products are selling the best and which marketing channels are driving the most traffic and sales.
Google Analytics Integration
- Seamlessly integrate with Google Analytics for more advanced tracking and analysis. Leverage Google Analytics’ powerful features to gain deeper insights into your customer behavior.
- Actionable Tip: Set up conversion tracking in Google Analytics to measure the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns and optimize your ad spend.
BigCommerce SEO Tools: Optimizing for Search Engines
While BigCommerce provides a solid foundation for SEO, these tools can further enhance your search engine rankings.
Keyword Research Tools
- Use tools like Google Keyword Planner, SEMrush, and Ahrefs to identify relevant keywords for your products and target audience.
- Actionable Tip: Focus on long-tail keywords, which are more specific and have lower competition.
SEO Audit Tools
- Use tools like SEMrush, Ahrefs, and Moz Pro to identify and fix technical SEO issues on your website. These tools can help you identify broken links, missing meta descriptions, and other issues that can impact your search engine rankings.
Content Optimization Tools
- Use tools like Surfer SEO and Clearscope to optimize your product descriptions and blog posts for relevant keywords. These tools analyze the top-ranking content for your target keywords and provide suggestions for improving your content’s relevance and quality.
- Example: Use Surfer SEO to analyze the top-ranking articles for “best coffee maker” and identify the keywords and topics that are most important to include in your own article.
Conclusion
BigCommerce offers a powerful suite of tools to help you build, manage, and grow your online store. By leveraging the platform’s native features, exploring the App Marketplace, and using analytics tools, you can optimize your store for success. Remember to continuously monitor your store’s performance, experiment with different strategies, and adapt to the ever-changing e-commerce landscape. With the right tools and a solid strategy, you can unlock the full potential of BigCommerce and achieve your business goals.
